Up and Back and Down

I flew to Washington, D.C. Tuesday morning and flew back Tuesday afternoon. It was a lot of traveling for a 6.5 months pregnant lady (or anyone, really), but it did spare me the necessity of packing (so weird to leave for the airport at 5:30 a.m. with nothing but my purse and a binder) and a night spent tossing and turning in a hotel room. I was home at 8:30 p.m., just in time to say hello to the not-yet-asleep kiddos and spent some time with JP before falling very deeply asleep in my own bed. I love overnight trips to DC. They give give me a chance to see close law school friends and hopefully one day to schedule a meet up with blog readers, but I only needed to be there for a 2 hour meeting (a very important meeting in my most important case), so this particular travel plan made sense, but it made for a long and rather strange day.

Yesterday I left work a little early so I could pick up the kids and go buy food (I have no idea how we ran out of food on Wednesday, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I wasn't part of the grocery shopping on Sunday). I was backing out of our very long driveway when there was a sudden CRUNCH and the car made impact with something big enough to stop it in its tracks. Turns out, our gate had stopped halfway to opening (I must have hit the button a second time and didn't know it) and since I usually back out of our very narrow driveway by looking out my side mirror (if I'm close to the side of the house without actually hitting it, I know I'm in the perfect position) I smashed right into it without ever knowing it was half-closed. The gate came away with only a slight dent (though it now won't close, which means our whole backyard is open and Tex can't roam free) and my car came away with a fist-sized crater in the trunk and deep scratch in the bumper. The kids were in the car- they found the whole thing hilarious, so I had to restrict my curses to muttering mother f-ing mother f-er and still continue on to Trader Joe's because the car was driveable and our newly impending car and gate repair bills didn't change the fact that I had nothing to make for dinner.

So that was awesome. The one good thing is that the swim school is doing well enough that the knowledge of the upcoming dual repair bills didn't send me into a hyperventilating panic spiral. Sure, there's a million things I'd rather do with the $250 car insurance deductible, including things like "save it" and "buy a rug for the baby's room," but a few short months ago I would have simply started sobbing. Now I just feel like an idiot.

On a swim school related and actually awesome note, JP came home last night with the hilarious news that he overheard his lifeguards talking about all the moms who watch him work out during breaks in his lessons. Apparently there's one woman who's been reading (or "reading") the same book all summer and sets up her chair near the diving well where he does laps and some dry land (push-ups, pull-ups, etc.) during his lunch break. The best part was he relayed the story with a voice of disbelief and a face that was rapidly turning pink. A very big part of him will always be the too-tall and awkward high school boy with big ears (according to him) and braces, who'd never talked to a girl until I met him his junior year of college, and who still finds it genuinely hard to believe anyone would be looking at him, much less that he might have what appears to be an entire fan club. I of course wasn't surprised at all and just told him I was lucky to have snagged him when I did. Because I was- he really does get handsomer (more handsome?) every day, and I get a giggle every time I think about his lifeguards making a game of spotting his fans (and JP's utter obliviousness to it).

I started typing this while sitting outside with the kids, melting in the humidity and getting bit by mosquitoes in the name of letting them swim and getting us out of the house, but now we're back inside because the mosquitoes were multiplying and Landon wasn't listening and Claire was whining and the magic was over just as it was getting started. Now I have them coloring and I'm trying to decide if I really want to make something with the pizza dough that's rising on the counter or do I want to order Thai food. Because I have to say, I really want to order Thai food, but I did sacrifice the entire rear of my car in order to go to Trader Joe's to buy the pizza dough yesterday and the paint and dollars shed in that incident make me feel like I not only need to use the dough but I also shouldn't spent additional dollars on Thai food. But, then again, I'm pregnant and it's hot and it's been a long week and Landon just managed to close the door on Claire's lip and make it bleed (I was even watching and I have absolutely no idea how she got her lip, and only her lip, caught in the door as it closed) and I haven't copped out to take out in weeks and weeks. And I'm pregnant. It's an internal struggle for the ages, but I'd say the odds we end up eating pad thai tonight and pizza that JP makes tomorrow are pretty high. Monday was great and Thursday isn't even over and I still find myself wanting to type, "It's been a long week."